INTERACT is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) | European Territorial Cooperation

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Contact

Francesco Saverio Liguori Quality Assurance and Knowledge Manager t: +421 2 482 64 234saverio.liguori@interact-eu.net

INTERACT SecretariatSabinovská 16 | P.O.Box 106820 05 Bratislava 25Slovakia

www.interact-eu.net

Demonstrating the Effectiveness of European Territorial Cooperation

KEEP – Knowledge andExpertise in EuropeanProgrammes

The KEEP initiative will give programmes visibility throughout the European TerritorialCooperation community.

In line with the new regulations the servicegives additional priority to communicationissues, and will act as:

• An overview of past and present projects and partners involved, which will help pro–grammes and Monitoring Committees in decision-making, avoiding repeat projects with little added value;

• A capacity building platform, allowing pro-grammes to learn from each other and experts to address the need for learning;

• A benchmark for both programmes and pro-jects, with the central aim being the rai-sing of standards for cooperation projects;

• A support for programmes in their own regions, recognising cooperation as an important strategic development tool,

communicating benefits based on facts, and selling the results to a wider audience;

• An overview for projects of what has been done in other programme areas, saving time and achieving better outputs by building on the results of previous projects;

• An analysis of partnerships that will help with the identification of regions which could usefully cooperate in the future;

• A partner development site, introducing the regions briefly and stating their main interests, helping to alleviate difficulties faced by projects in identifying appropria-te partners, and encouraging the exchange of methods and results between projects.

• A basis for creating a project culture that targets the identification of change and transferable results

We could ensure that in future the best resultsremain online for longer by incorporatingthem into this service.

Key Benefits for Programmes & Projects

Demonstrating the Effectiveness of European TerritorialCooperation

KEEPKnowledge and Expertise in European Programmes

The European Territorial Cooperation Portal

Territorial Cooperation needs an Europeanoverview of the actions that have been andwill be carried out. There is a need to trans-parently communicate to decision makers, the general public and also those involved incooperation where funds are going and whatactions are being taken, as well as creating adynamic environment for cooperation expertsto exchange knowledge and experience.

For the first time we will work towards a com-plete picture of what is going on, and where,in European Territorial Cooperation. It is aboutmaking cooperation easier by creating a plat-form for sharing ideas and developmentsthroughout Europe. KEEP will act as portal ofclear information to support programmes inincreasing efficiency and effectiveness amongour community.

European Wide

By taking a European View, KEEP is unique inits aims. To work, it must be cross-program-me, cross-strand and cross-regional.

Only be ensuring this can KEEP generate convincing statistical evidence on the resultsof cooperation and allow us to prove the im-portance of cooperation and its contributionto achieving the Lisbon and Gothenburg objectives

3 Steps to Success

STEP 1 aggregates all INTERREG III data toprovide an online service presenting simplevisualisation of this data (maps, charts etc.)as well as standard database services such assearches for projects by theme. This highlyinnovative tool could, for example, demon-strate thematic “hot spots” in Europe as wellas giving details on demand of good practice.Flagship Projects will enable programmes toprovide information on their best projects en-suring a promotional angle as well as adding a“human” face to maps etc.

STEP 2 focuses on integrating as many pro-jects as possible from the new period andhighlighting their achievements and results.This aim goes beyond the mere collection ofdata and information from projects, and focu-ses on the analysis and processing of this datafor various purposes (e.g. harmonisation ofdata on participating regions, thematic analy-sis of results achieved etc.) making projectactivities and results available early and crea-ting incentives to ensure good quality outputsand providing an evidence base for projectdevelopment.

STEP 3 sets the focus on the intangibleaspects of cooperation – not only on theresults obtained, but also on how these wereachieved. A virtual community will be develo-ped as a longer term goal, with the aim ofincreasing interaction where people can“meet”, not only to search for information,but to also interact with each other (eg. the-matic communities of practice, inter-program-me thematic events, and forums for thoseinvolved or interested in territorial cooperati-on projects.) The Step 3 will also provide thelinks between European Territorial Cooper-ation projects and European policies, projectsunder other programmes, mainstream pro-grammes, and national and EU policy.

KEEP will:

• Demonstrate the added value of the ETC Objective building European links and pro-viding a convincing picture of the changes cooperation is generating across Europe;

• Enhance the European dimension of cooperation to lead to more effective projects achieving a higher quality set of results;

• Identify the true added value and innovati-ve project aspects in order to promote the unique potential of cooperation projects to various target groups;

• Identify policy gaps and synergies, provi-ding better guidance for programme decision-making ;

• Allow policy-makers to assess the overall flow of funding into different regions, and to themes which have been addressed.

• Allow policy-makers to assess the overall flow of funding into different regions, and to themes which have been addressed.